A misperceptive critic

It’s not often that hallucinations indulge in media criticism, but this case of Charles Bonnet syndrome recently published in the journal Optometry is a delightful exception.

Everyone, it seems, is a critic, including perceptual distortions generated by, in this case, macular degeneration.

A 79-year-old man presented to the clinic with intermittent hallucinations of 6 months’ duration before this visit. He reported it occurred mostly in the evening, when he saw visions of road maps, Christmas wreaths, and faces that blocked his television screen. The faces were not of people known to him and often had elaborate hats or headdresses. When he rode in a car, he often saw houses that he knew were not truly present, and when he watched his favorite celebrity television dancing show, he saw multiple dancers rather than the 2 actually dancing. He was not disturbed or frightened by these hallucinations; he knew that they were not real. On the contrary, he felt they were amusing and reported they were often more entertaining than what was actually on television.